The Terrorist Round-Up for December 16, 2005

[Straight Vermonter]

Making History

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History in the making, early morning brings Iraqi voters
By Capt. Ryan Avila 4th Brigade Combat Team PAO
  
With tight rings of security circling the city, Iraqi citizens took to the streets the morning of Dec. 15 to vote for the first full-term government since the fall of Saddam Hussein.

Iraqi Police are providing close-in protection at polling stations; Iraqi public Order Battalions and Iraqi Army Soldiers are providing the next level of protection; and more Iraqi Soldiers and Coalition Forces are in a third ring of troops. They will also provide a quick-reaction force if needed.

"Today, the people of Iraq will elect the government that will lead their country through the next four years," said Maj. Ross Coffman, 4th Brigade Combat Team executive officer. "We are America’s team helping Iraqi’s team build a lasting democracy."

Shortly after polling sites opened in Baghdad, a rocket landed in the International Zone, damaging a vehicle and injuring one Marine and two civilian contractors. The wounded were treated at the site for minor injuries and released.

Polling stations throughout south Baghdad reported a constant flow of voters.

"In our area of operations, all polling sites are open and the Iraqi Security Forces are leading the security effort," Coffman said.

Early reports indicated voter turnout is higher than the numbers seen on for the Constitutional Referendum vote on Oct. 15.

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France seizes military arsenal in Zarqawi-tied probe
By Thierry Leveque

French police have seized large quantities of military weapons and explosives as part of a probe into an Islamic militant group said to have indirect links to al Qaeda's leader in Iraq, officials said on Thursday. Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy told reporters the arsenal was discovered on Wednesday in a lock-up attached to a block of flats in the Clichy-sous-Bois suburb north of Paris. Judicial sources said the haul included assault rifles, dynamite and TNT.

Police also arrested on Wednesday two new suspects in addition to the 25 rounded up in a string of dawn raids in the Paris area on Monday.  Investigators believe the gang financed Islamic militancy by staging armed robberies and judicial sources said one suspect had admitted planning one such robbery in Beauvais, north of Paris, in October.

Sarkozy told parliament this week that those detained had indirect links to key al Qaeda leaders and Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the organisation's leader in Iraq. Thanks to the arrests, an arms cache has just been discovered which reveals the seriousness of this matter. They are very determined people, with links between terrorist extremism and major crime," Sarkozy told BFM TV.  "We think they have indirect links, at a fairly high level, with al Qaeda," he said.

Four people have been released but police are still holding 23 people in custody on suspicion of terrorism-related offences. They include Ouassini Cherifi, 30, who has just served a five-year jail term for trafficking forged passports used by armed militants.

Anti-terrorism magistrates are expected to place around 15 of the suspects under formal investigation on Friday. They must then be bailed or remanded in custody by a judge.

Judicial sources are cautious about the Zarqawi connection. So far, they have only linked the latest group to another disbanded by police in October and November. It was allegedly run by Safe Bourada, a French national implicated in a wave of Islamist attacks in France in 1995.  It is Bourada's group that has been linked to the GSPC, a militant Algerian Islamist group which western intelligence services say has contacts with Zarqawi.

The tough-talking Sarkozy, who wants to run for president in 2007, is steering a major anti-terrorism bill through parliament. It sharply increases the use of closed circuit television surveillance, monitoring of mobile phone and Internet cafe connections and tougher sentencing for terrorism offences.

(So far no reports of the French military surrenderring to the GSPC or al-Qaeda)

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Lebanon: Shia Reject Al Qaeda Call To Arms

Lebanese Shia reject Sunni al Qaeda in Iraq leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi's call for war, said Sheikh Afif Nabulsi, president of the Association of Jabal Amel Ulama, on Dec. 15.

Nabulsi has received threats for his views and has been labeled an "atheist" and hostile "to the mujahideen." Despite his calls for peace, he said that Shia should not turn the other cheek, and will take an "eye for an eye."

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SAUDI ARABIA: NEW LOCAL COUNCILS FINALLY FORMED
 
  Ten months after Saudi Arabia's first municipal elections, hailed as a tentative step towards greater democracy in the Kingdom, the new local councils have finally been completed. The elections, from February to April, allowed male Saudi citizens to vote for half of the members on the new local councils. The remaining half were to be chosen by the government, however difficulties in deciding who should occupy these posts has meant long delays.

“I am pleased to announce the formation of municipal councils has been completed,” Municipalities Minister Prince Mutib bin Abdul-Aziz said in a statement carried by the Saudi Press Agency (SPA).

He said the performance of the new councillors would be watched not just by the Saudi people but by the whole world. The minister also praised Saudi voters for their maturity and understanding in taking part in the "free and fair" elections.

Women were not allowed to vote in this year's elections, though the authorities have promised they will be included in the next polls in four years time. Other voting criteria prevented anyone under 21 and members of the armed forces from voting. Electors must also have lived in their district for at least twelve months prior to the vote.

All of this reduced the number eligible to register and vote to just three million, from a 24-million strong population which features a large percentage of (non-eligible) foreigners.

Candidates backed by conservative Muslim scholars won most of the seats.

(Drip, drip, drip, democracy slowly erodes the totalitarian regimes)

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LeT men rape girl, put reward on her head

A little girl, raped and humiliated, is on the run from terrorists. But there is no one to help her. Not even the police.

In a blatant act aimed at browbeating an already troubled people into submission, Lashkar-e-Taiba terrorists in a remote village of Rajouri have pasted posters of a 14-year-old girl whom they gangraped for months but failed to keep in detention.

They are now trying to hound her out. There is a reward of Rs 50,000 for those who provide information to pin down the hunted child.

More..

("Army of the righteous" my ass)

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Battle in Afghanistan Leaves One U.S. Servicemember, One Enemy Dead

One U.S. servicemember and one enemy fighter were killed today during a firefight northeast of Kandahar, Afghanistan.
Afghan and U.S. troops were conducting a joint combat patrol when they came under small-arms fire. U.S. and Afghan forces returned fire, and nearby coalition attack aircraft and helicopters responded, engaging enemy positions. The enemy fighters fled the scene.

A U.S. soldier and one Afghan National Army soldier also were wounded. They are in stable condition at a nearby U.S. medical facility.

"This is a sad day for us all here in Afghanistan," said Brig. Gen. Jack Sterling Jr., deputy commanding general (support) of Combined Joint Task Force 76. "The loss of one of our own is a tremendous weight on all our hearts. Our thoughts and prayers go out to the family of our fallen comrade. Our soldiers are here serving alongside the Afghan National Army to bring peace and prosperity to this great nation, and this tragic incident will only strengthen our resolve toward those goals."

Elsewhere in Afghanistan, 47 Afghan detainees were released at the Bagram Theater Internment Facility today under the Government of Afghanistan's Tahkim-e Sohl program. Officials had determined the detainees no longer present a threat. Each detainee received a gym bag containing a Koran, prayer blanket, three packaged military meals, three bottles of water, and new clothes, and all personal items were returned to them.

The release is part of an ongoing effort by the U.S. supporting the government of Afghanistan's program for strengthening peace, officials said.

In the skies over Afghanistan, coalition aircraft flew 19 close-air-support missions in support of Operation Enduring Freedom. The missions included support to coalition and Afghan troops, reconstruction activities, and the conduct of presence route patrols. U.S. Air Force A-10s and a B-52 provided close-air support to coalition forces in contact with enemy troops near Qalat. The A-10s successfully expended a general-purpose 500-pound bomb and strafed enemy positions.

Four U.S. Air Force intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance aircraft also flew missions in support of Afghan operations, and British Royal Air Force fighter aircraft performed in a non-traditional ISR role.

(Compiled from Combined Forces Command Afghanistan and U.S. Central Command Air Forces Forward news releases.)
 

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Charges brought against 40 suspected Nalchik militants

The Russian Prosecutor General's Office has indicted over 40 militants suspected of involvement in the raid on Nalchik, Deputy Prosecutor General Nikolai Shepel told Interfax.

"We have brought charges against more than 40 people detained on suspicion of involvement in the October 13 attack on Nalchik. All in all, more than 60 suspects have been detained," he said.

"We are conducting forensic, medical and chemical examinations to identify suspected terrorists and detect their precise location," Shepel said.

Ballistic examinations of seized weapons are also underway, he said.

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Pakistani police arrests 26 including Immam Mehdi after shootout

Police Thursday arrested a criminal, calling himself Immam Mehdi, along with his 25 accomplices after a shootout in eastern Punjab province that killed one and wounded three others, said police.

The Inspector General and Senior Superintendent Police (SSP) of Faisalabad city, about 250 kilometers South of Islamabad, were on routine patrol when some unknown gangsters assaulted them with rifles, a local police official Mubashir Nazir told KUNA. Upon retaliation fire, which lasted for about an hour, the gangsters tried to escape, said Nazir. He said Police chased them and when they reached the Motorway, leading toward Islamabad, they stopped a bus on gunpoint and took about 40 passengers as hostages.

Immediately after the incident, police called in more force from nearby cities and were negotiating the gangsters.

The leader of the gangsters group, Shehbaz, called himself Immam Mehdi, and threatened police of dire consequences if they tried to arrest him or his accomplices. He demanded to call President General Pervez Musharraf in Faislabad and that he wanted to talk to the President directly. After negotiations of two and half hour, he said, Shehbaz gangster released all the bus passengers.

There was an exchange of fire that killed one gangster and critically wounded three others, he said, adding that Police succeeded in arresting all 26 gangsters along with their leader.

Rana Zahid Tauseef, the city mayor, said they were interrogating them and determining their identities as well as from where they got hold of weapons in such a huge quantity.

According to Muslims faith, a cleric, Immam Mehdi, will come before the doomsday. Many people earlier had been claiming to be Immam Mehdi.

(This guy is crazy even by the unbelievable low standard of sanity in that part of the world.)

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Pakistan, Afghanistan, coalition troops to enhance intelligence sharing

The senior military and diplomatic officials from Pakistan, Afghanistan and Coalition troops in Kabul have agreed to enhance cooperation, communication and intelligence sharing against extremists, threatening peace progress and stability in the region.

More..

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Turkey to increase number of CIA, FBI agents active in its territories

The US and Turkey agreed to raise the number of American intelligent agents active in Turkish territories, in an attempt to start a "sound strategic cooperation" against separatist organizations and al Qaeda network, said the Turkish evening newspaper Aksam on Thursday.

Aksam quoted top security officials as saying that the recent visit of heads of both the FBI and CIA to Turkey were "very positive and productive." Turkey and the US agreed to boost the number of American intelligence in the country and to launch a "strong bilateral strategic cooperation" in face of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), north of Iraq, and the Qaeda network, said the security officials.

Head of the FBI, Robert Miller, asked Turkey to concentrate its efforts and joint cooperation with Washington to get rid of the Qaeda network, said Aksam.

Ankara, however, urged the Washington to back Turkey in its fight against the PKK, according to the press. -- The newspaper said that the FBI and CIA promised to provide Turkey with American technology in return for maximizing the number of their agents in Turkey and supplying them with facilities that enable US-intelligence to hunt and bring down Qaeda members more efficiently.

"The American visitors informed Ankara that Washington is not currently considering a military action against the separatist orgnization, north of Iraq ... But it rather prefers diplomacy and attaining a peaceful solution", said Aksam.

An FBI-CIA delegation is scheduled to arrive in Turkey within the few coming days to hold talks on technical issues and to tackle the mechanism of implementing the new strategic agreement, said the newspaper.

The visits of both the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) bosses to Turkey had attracted much attention in the Turkish media and raised many questions among the Turkish public, said Zaman, a Turkish paper on the Internet.

[Straight Vermonter]

Ping

[Coop]

I don't know if statistics back it up, but it does seem that the violence is increasing in Afghanistan. Rest in peace, brave soldier, and may God comfort your family.

[Just A Nobody]

Thank you SV. Prayers for the family of our fallen hero.